A Conversation about Hope
The SPARK response to this jubilee year of spiritual reflection and renewal was to pilot a new venture, “Conversations of Hope”. The idea was to sit as a group and have some food together whilst having a conversation with someone who could talk about their experiences of working on issues of social justice. We held this first event at Heart, the community centre in Headingley in Leeds.
The focus on Friday evening was to hear from Fr Luis Orlando Pérez Jiménez SJ, who shared how his work as a lawyer at the Jesuit Human Rights Centre in Mexico City had deepened his spirituality and understanding of sustaining hope and building resilience. Fr Luis spoke of how the voices of hundreds of women, whose children have been forcibly taken, are the channels of hope and God’s grace in our world today. Those who tend to disappear are poor people, young people, often between sixteen and thirty years old, living in marginalised neighbourhoods. It is happening across the whole country. The groups responsible for these disappearances are of two kinds: people who work for the Mexican state — police, soldiers — and members of organised crime. And often, both sides collaborate. They protect one another and, together, maintain a system of almost total impunity.
With our many global and local challenges, these mothers demonstrate that, “through their hands and hearts, grace takes on a human shape”. Journalists who support their cause have given them a voice and international visibility. Despite enormous personal risk, these women still proclaim that this violence and corruption must stop.
The happy buzz of conversation was a pleasure and the catering from Heart ensured that most people left with a pack up of weekend goodies. Comments were flying around at the end about the motivational nature of the evening and suggestions made for a repeat of the same. The format of a relaxed discussion with food at the centre of the table was appreciated by everyone.
The lovely photo is Fr. Luis with Iesha; she has supported SPARK activities for over two years now and was our host for this event.
We asked everyone who came to select some words that best described how they felt about the event. The top 3 were ‘Interesting’, ‘Relaxed’, ‘Inspiring’ – closely followed by ‘Different’, ‘Learned something new’, ‘Motivational’ and ‘Stimulating’. Additional comments included several participants asking for the chance to hear about similar events “I found today really inspiring”.
The following day Fr Luis led a one day retreat at Hinsley Hall where he expanded on the themes outlined above.
He gave us the text of the talk and homily that he gave on that day and this is available as a downloadable PDF booklet.Use the link to download it.:
https://sparksocialjustice.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/sustaining-hopes-talks-booklet.pdf
If you are thinking ‘that sounds interesting’, then please email us with any ideas you might have about topics or speakers where you would like to have a ‘Conversation of Hope’.